The New Valley Hospital Wins 2025 Tesla Award with Detailed Lighting Control Solution

The Tesla Special Citation for Innovative Lighting Controls Design & Implementation was created as a few facet of the National Lighting Bureau’s Tesla Awards, which recognize excellence and innovation in lighting design, advancing best lighting practices to create an inviting, healthier, and more sustainable future. The Lighting Controls Association is proud to sponsor the Special Citation for Innovative Lighting Controls Design & Implementation and congratulates this year’s winner.

The 2025 winning project is The New Valley Hospital in Paramus, NJ. Lighting and control design by HDR. Lighting control solution by nLight. Photography by Elizabeth Kummer.

The 370-bed 873,000 square-foot New Valley Hospital replaces a residentially land-locked Ridgewood facility. A non-negotiable opening date established by the state licensing board instituted schedule pressures from the start, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting multiple aspects of construction. Adding to schedule and cost implications, the lighting rep agency that bid the job was acquired by another agency that offered different product lines after the first round of shop drawing review was complete. Construction, punch lists and staff training occurred concurrently, in a final push to open on time, with the programming of the networked lighting controls completed just hours before the first patient arrived.

The 12-acre hospital site repurposed an abandoned warehouse site, providing 5.5 acres of new accessible green space to the community. Respecting the history of the site, pieces from the decommissioned Stefan Knapp mural that once hung on the Alexander’s Department Store were re-purposed as featured artwork in the healing garden returning art to the public domain. Pedestrian-scaled full cut-off post-top luminaires are utilized along primary sidewalks, stepping down to bollards for meandering garden pathways, and in-grade adjustable spotlights for each face of the 16-foot sculptures. No façade lighting was utilized, taking great care to prevent light trespass through glazing into the patient rooms.

Lighting technologies are used to support health. Individual public rest rooms utilize 405-nanometer disinfection lights to supplement cleaning regimens. White tunable lighting and automated time clock controls support circadian rhythms of patients and staff while maintaining high color rendition in examination and triage spaces. Wrapping the inside core wall of in-patient corridors are continuous linear perimeter tunable slot lights, providing vertical illumination for nurses seated in centralized nurse stations and intuitive wayfinding. In nurseries and NICUs, tunable indirect luminaires and baffled narrow-aperture headwall grazing tunable slot lights help establish circadian entrainment to environmental day/night cycles.

The networked lighting control system’s programmable timeclock settings adjust correlated color temperatures throughout the course of each day, altering spectral power distribution. Transitions occur with an extended fade rate to create a more natural, less noticeable, effect. Some spaces also utilize the timeclock to automatically reduce illumination at night, while providing local override dimmers for occupant intensity adjustment as needed. The system supports circadian rhythms without the need for staff intervention–it occurs automatically just like sunrise and sunset.

Staff training and supply stocking occurred while construction finished, affording the ability to fine-tune preset dimming and trim levels with input from staff on desired illumination. This resulted in dimming levels for high-end trims and night settings below documented levels, improving energy savings and staff satisfaction. Lighting power density was 21% below code, helping the project achieve LEED Gold certification. Four months after move-in, when the post-anesthesia care unit flexed from daytime only usage to 24/7 operation, staff were able to re-program the lighting controls without any service interruption or field work needed within the suite.